Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1887-09-30

~. eieVhtlon. 1t has brought to them
,'a VIZ. 'aieh. ana executive force could never
, naae achleved. Many of those who ora
. ,i;1mAins great effort for place and mower
wv WIZ ~ never succeed just because thew are
II =; ~ t .i Importance to be abused
those who are prosecuted and defend th nou'
ana they are apt to forget the fnults 81
tnose who are the subjects of attack Will,
Im1tempung to drive back the slanderors
f1eien Stlrk, Scotch martyr conden,nai
WIN her husband to death for Chrst,s
sake, said to her husband; "Reioica W.,
nave nave lived together many JOYOUS doys. b mi
thls day wherein we must die tooetLar
eugnI 10 De most joyful to us both. There.
1ore VIII bid you goodnight, for soon Wa
81. shall meet in the heavenly kingdom.n Bv
s w Aash OF the furnace best Christian
character is demonstrated. 'Aan
go into another department. and find
.1at those great denominations of Chris
nuns which have been most abused have
spread the most rapidly. No good man
MSS Mus ever more no. vllely maltreated than John
wesley. His followers were hooted nj md
maligned, and called by every detestahia
name that Internal ingenuity could invent
out the hotter the persecution the mora
RAPID the spread of that denomination. nm
III you Know what great host thew have
become and what tremendous force for
COD and the truth they are WELDING MI tha
world over. 1t was persecution that nave
Scotland to Presbyterianism. It was per.
secutlon which gave our own land first to
civil liberty md afterward to religious free
dom. Yea, l may go further back and saw
1t was persecution that gave the world the
great salvation of the Gospel. The ribald
mockery, the hungering and thirsting, the
nnir1cf trial and o;,,;o,
all the force of hells fury was hurled
against the cross. was the introduction
of that religion which is yet to be the
earth's deliverance from guilt and suffer
ing, and her everlasting enthronement
among the municipalities of Heaven.
The State has sometimes said TO the
church: "Come let me take your hand
and l will help you." What has been
the result? The church has gone back
and has lost its estate of holiness and hns
become ineffective. At other times the
state has said to the church: II will crush
YOU" What has been the result? After
the storms have spent their fury, the
church, SO far from having lost any of it's
force, has increased and is worth infinitely
more after the assault than before it. The
church is far more indebted to the opposi.
ton OF civil government than to its an
proval. The fires of the stake have onlv
been the torches which Christ held in His
hand, by the light of which The church has
marched to her present position. In the
sound OF racks and implements of torture
l hear the rumbling Of the wheels of the
Gospel chariot. Scaffolds of martyrdom
have been the stairs by which the church
has assembled. Aquaiortis is the best test
of pure gold.
Furthermore, our subject impresses us
that sins will come to exposure. Long,
long ago had these brothers sold JOSEPH
into Egypt They had suppressed the
crime, and it was profound secret we'll
kept by the brothers. But suddenly the
secret is out. The old father hears that
his son is in Egypt, having been sold there
by the malice of his own brothers. How
their cheeks must have burned and their
hearts sunk at the flaming out of this sup
pressed crime. The smallest iniquity has
a thousand tongues and they will blab out
an exposure. Saul was sent to destroy the
Canaanltes, their sheep and their oxen.
But when he got down there among the
pastures he saw some fine sheep and oxen
too fat to kill, and SO he thought he would
steal them. He drove them toward home,
but stopped to report to the prophet how
we'll he had executed the commission,
when in the distance the sheep began to
bleat and the oxen to below. The secret
was out and Samuel said to the blushing
and confounded Saul: "What means the
bleating of the sheep that l hear and the
lowing of the cattle?" Aye, my hearers,
you cannot keep an iniquity quiet. At
and the oxen will below. Achan cannot
steal the Babylonish garment without get
ting stoned to death, nor Benedict Arnold
betray his country without having his
neck stretched. Look over the public
arrests. these thieves, these burglars, these
adulterers, these counterfeiters, these
highwaymen, these assassins. They all
thought they could bury their iniquity so
deep down that it would never come to
resurrection. But there was some shoe
that answered to the print in the sand,
some false keys found in possession, some
bloody knife that whispered of the deed,
and the public indignation, and the
anathema of outraged law hurled him into
At the close of the battle between the
Dauphin of France and the Helvetians,
Burchard Monk was SO elated with the
victory that he lifted his helmet to look off
upon the field, when a wounded soldier
hurled stone that struck his uncovered
forehead and he fell. Sin will always
leave some point exposed, and there is no
safety in iniquity. Francis l., King of
France, was discussing how it was best to
get his crry into Italy. Amaril, the
court fool, sprang out from the corner and
said to the King and his staff officers: "You
had better be thinking how you will get
your army back out Of Italy after once you
have entered" In other words, it is easier
for us to get into sin than to get out of it.
Whitefeld was riding on horseback in u
lonely way with some missionary money in
n sack fastened to the saddle bags. A
sprang out from the thicket
and put his hand out toward the gold,
when Whitetield turned upon him and said
That belongs to the Lord Jesus Christ:
touch it if you dare" and the villain fell
back empty handed into the thicket. Oh, |
he power of conscience! If offended, it |
becomes Gods avenging minister. Do NOT
hink that you can hide any great and pro-
racted sin in your hearts. In an I'M
guarded moment in will slip off of the lip,
or some slight occasion may for moment
set aiar this door of hell that you wanted to
keep closed. But suppose that in this
life you hide it, and you get along with
hat ,transgression burning III your heart,
is ship on fire within for days may him
Ter the flame from bursting out by keeping
lown the Latchways; yet ut last, in the
Judgment, that iniquity will blaze out be-
ore the throne of God and the universe.
l,or,, fror, t1;o hianf no |